Man Gets 30 Days After Guilty Plea In Deadly Accident

SALUDA — A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court enabled a Topping man to come away with a relatively light sentence after pleading guilty to two manslaughter charges Friday.

Circuit Judge John E. DeHardit sentenced Stephen Glenn Osborne, 22, to concurrent year-long terms on each charge, plus court costs. He will spend 30 days in jail; the rest of the sentence was suspended.

The charges against Osborne grew out of a traffic accident almost a year ago in which two people were killed.

Osborne was attempting to pass another car on a hill on Route 33 near Christ Church Aug. 26 and failed to return to his lane in time to avoid a car coming from the opposite direction, police said.

The driver and a passenger in the other car, Dorothy Smith Stanley and Charles Wayne Leonard, both 33 years old and from Richmond, died as a result of the collision. Osborne was not seriously hurt, according to court documents.

A Supreme Court decision May 29 prohibits courts from using evidence from one conviction for a second conviction, according to Middlesex Commonwealth's Attorney James H. Ward Jr.

Osborne was convicted in November of a misdemeanor, reckless driving. Because of the Supreme Court ruling, Ward could not use the same evidence to try to bring a conviction for manslaughter, he said.

Ward said the Supreme Court decision would change the way attorneys prosecute charges of manslaughter in automobile accidents.

The families of the people killed in the accident would have liked a harsher sentence, Ward said. But they preferred that Osborne be convicted of manslaughter than that he serve time for reckless driving, he added.